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Talk:Northern Ireland
Rationale for changes from Wikipedia article Lede PoV on Wikipedia is a guideline which is short for 'point of view'. It suggests the editor is projecting opinion or personal point of view. The first example of PoV in this article is the way the article on Northern Ireland is treated differently to other member-states of th United Kingdom. Compare, for example, the lede for England, which states that England is a country which is part of the United Kingdom. In this article, Northern Ireland is labelled a "constituent unit". "Weasel words" is also a phrase used in Wikipedia's guidelines. The explanation should be obvious, as should the correlation with this particular problem. The British Prime Minister and British government documents refer to Northern Ireland as a country and as a "constituent country" (meaning a country which is a constituent of the UK). Northern Ireland also fits the definition of the word country. However, as with the other countries of the UK, Northern Ireland is not a sovereign country. This is similar to the fifty states of the USA: Texas is not sovereign, though it does has devolved powers. The second instance of 'weasel words' is in the very same sentence, when Northern Ireland is described as being part of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". There is no rationale for using the full name of the country here - particularly as the same treatment is not given to England (and, I would hazard a guess, nor to Scotland or Wales). There is list of citations from sourcess which appear defend Wikipedia's biased contributors rationale for treating Northern Ireland differently from the other countries of the UK. These are authors' opinions and discussions on why people who do not accept the fact that Northern Ireland remains a part of the UK, also do not accept the idea that Northern Ireland is a country. The authors cited are being, at best, politically sensitive and, at worst, politically biased. None of their conjecture changes the fact that Northern Ireland is a country in the same way as other countries are in the UK. One difference is, of course, that Northern Ireland is relatively new: it came into being in 1920/21. However, Northern Ireland had previously been part of a larger country which was added to the Union (the United Kingdom). A reduction in territory is not a rationale to change the definition of the word country. Bitterness and political opposition is not a rationale either, though it certainly is an explanation. As the text suggests, some people rather bitterly refer to Northern Ireland as a "statelet". However, these same people do not refer to the Republic of Ireland as a 'statelet' even though that country is not particulaly much larger than Northern Ireland on the grand scale. Other countries which are smaller than Northern Ireland in size or population are referred to as countries. Some are also referred to as micronations etc, usually much smaller. The lede for this article also immediately goes into the history of Northern Ireland (something that is also done with England), but pretty quickly makes a PoV accusatory statement of dscrimination which starts off quite balanced, until it is leant undue weight from a quote from Northern Ireland's former First Minister, David Trimble. The lede then goes on ad nauseum about the politics and whyfors of Northern Ireland, and more about segregation - topics about which are also very real for England, but which remain untouched in the lede. Infobox flag Although flags are on display for countries throughout Wikipedia, and for each of the regions of the UK< one exception to this is for Northern Ireland. Wikpedia takes the attitude that the flag of Northern Ireland is somehow not "official" (even though it has the same 'official' status as the flag of England, the Union Jack and the flag of Scotland*. Wikipedia suggests that the Union Jack is the official flag of Northern Ireland, yet that flag is also absent from the infobox. The Union Jack is NOT the "official" flag of Northern Ireland - it is not a flag which represents Northern Ireland uniquely and independently of the rest of the UK. Only the flag of Northern Ireland, to date, represents Northern Ireland uniquely. The reason for the absence of ANY flag from the Wikipedia article on Northern Ireland is the same reason that is shared by Republicans (and the republican editors of Wikipedia) - and that is that they would like to suggest that Northern Ireland is somehow less 'real' than it actually is. This is despite repeated ratifications of the existence of Northern Ireland, and the wishes of the majority of Northern Irish people, which has culminated in an Agreement in 1998. This Agreement even went to the extent of influencing a change in the CONSTITUTION of the Republic of Ireland (although the name that country chooses for itself remains contentious), to wit: the Republic no longer makes claim to the territory of Northern Ireland. However, as mentioned above, the name the Republic chooses to be known by still effectively, and subtly, makes that very same claim. It is the Elephant in the room.